Relinquished (15 page)

A few minutes went by until the taxi pulled up, and the driver rolled down her window, speaking her code, “Twenty-three, forty-eight.”

“Nineteen, forty-three,” I answered back with a smile.  We knew each other, intimately, but kept up our professional protocol at times like these.

The young girl turned and gave me a quick hug before stepping into the cab and closing the door. Her sad eyes had changed a bit.  I recognized that look since I’d seen it so many times over the years.  It was a look of uncertainty mixed with hope. Part of it bothered me because she really didn’t know if I was on the up and up, yet she willingly took my offer.  Her naivety and desperation were what had gotten her in trouble in the first place.

I shook my head and took a deep breath. Just another day, right?

As the taxi pulled away, I headed back to my car, wishing I had extra time.  More than anything, I’d love to go pummel that dickless piece of shit that was so willing to take advantage of a distraught little girl.

But I had more pressing matters right now.  Jules was out there somewhere, unprotected because of me.  I was in charge of her safety, and if anything happened to her, it was on me.

Pushing my guilt aside, I got into my car and sped away like a bat out of hell to go look for her.

Scrunched into a ball, I tried to relax on the dusty loveseat in the employee break room. Even though I was covered head to toe, I didn’t want to think about what may have happened on this piece of shit furniture when Sam and Trudy had been alone in here. As an extra precaution, I protected the side of my face by using the thin blanket I’d bought earlier as a makeshift pillow.

I probably wouldn’t be getting any sleep since guilt was eating me alive. After hanging out with April and eating the food
she
had paid for, I deceived her into thinking I’d left out the back door. I’d been so desperate to stay inside, I ducked then hid in the back room until she locked up for the night. It wasn’t ideal, but it was a hell of a lot safer than being outside in the cold.

My head was still reeling over the news in the paper. It didn’t make sense, and even the reporter mentioned that Travis wasn’t eligible for parole. According to the district attorney’s quote, she was asking victims to contact her office for impact statements or to testify at the hearing.  But there was no way in hell I could do that.

Suddenly, a noise startled me, causing my senses to be on full alert. The alarm chimed for a second as the backdoor opened, followed by several beeps like the security code was being punched into the keypad.

A male voice I’d heard before, but couldn’t quite place, spoke first. “I swear I didn’t see her take off. I tracked her all day until she came in but never saw her leave.”   

Holy shit, they’re talking about me.

Was that why I’d been feeling watched all this time? And who the fuck was it?

I jumped over the arm of the sofa, out of sight, and pulled the hood off my head so I could hear a little better. Wrapping my arms around my knees, I pressed my back against the wall.

“Well, we better fucking find her tonight, or this isn’t going to go off as planned.”  That voice I knew—it was Sam. It sounded like he was in the kitchen, but what was he doing here, and how did he know the new password?

“What’s the rush all of a sudden?” The other guy said, sounding closer.

My heart pounded so hard in my ears, it was difficult to hear.

Sam stood just outside the doorway to the employee lounge. “I told you. We need to do this before my fat ass wife files for divorce. Her uncle won’t want to fuck with the insurance bullshit. He’ll hand everything over to her. Once the money’s in her account, half of it’s mine. Otherwise, I don’t get squat out of this shithole.”

Oh my God, what’s he planning?

“Are you sure it’s gonna work?”

“Leave that to me. I just need you to find that bitch, so we have someone to blame, in case it doesn’t look like an accident. Nobody has to know I didn’t fire her ass last night after she tried to short the bar. Disgruntled employees are the best scapegoats.”

Oh, fuck!  Sam’s trying to pin something on me?

My instincts said to get the hell out right away, but I needed to make sure they didn’t see me first. From what I could tell, they were still on the other side of the wall, blocking the back door.

The other guy’s voice seemed to soften a bit and was a complete contrast to Sam’s sharp tone. “What do you have against her anyway?  I’ve been watching her for like six months now, and she doesn’t do anything to anyone. It’s actually kind of sad the way she lives.”

My head pounded as panic overtook me. I was right. Someone had been watching me. But I didn’t have time to process that thought as I heard what sounded like a body slamming against the other side of the wall.

Sam’s voice thundered down the hallway. “There’s nothing for you to fucking get! I have my reasons, and that’s all you need to know. You get paid to watch her, not form a damn opinion.”

The other voice sounded strained, like his throat was being constricted. “Okay, okay. Sorry, I asked.” The wall vibrated when he hit the floor. He grunted a few times before I heard footsteps.

Blood swirled around in my head, making me feel dizzy.

Think. Think.
What do I do!

Without any warning, a sound filled the quiet, making my breathing pause as the little room suddenly filled with bright light. Fear stricken, I held my legs tighter as my hands began to shake, the way they used to when I was shackled in that fucking shower so many years ago.

From where I hid between the sofa and the corner, I felt someone enter the room. The hairs on the back of my neck stood on end as each step came closer toward me. I was staring at the tip of his tennis shoes before I had the nerve to look up.

“Well, what do you fucking know?  You were right, Jaxon. She didn’t leave after all.”  

“Don’t tell her my name!”

I peered past Sam, into the eyes of the guy that had handed me the newspaper earlier.

Anger boiled in my blood, pushing my fear aside. That motherfucker had been watching me—for months!—and I never saw him until today. That’s why his voice sounded familiar.

Something in me snapped as I slid up the wall, steadying myself with an indignant courage. “What do you want from me, asshole?”

“Oh, and she thinks she can mouth off to me now, huh?” Sam smirked, looking from me to who I now knew was Jaxon. “Well, seeing as you fucked up my life, I’m about to fuck up yours.” There was something in his ominous stare that was sickeningly reminiscent.

Throwing my shoulders back against the wall, I attempted to look stronger than I actually felt. “What the hell did I do to you?”

He let out a menacing chuckle and narrowed his beady green eyes. “I can’t believe you don’t know who I am because I sure as hell know who you are.”

My eyes grew wide, but I wasn’t going to give anything away. Did he really know who I was?  Jaxon seemed curious about his answer as well.

No. Let him do the talking.
 

Sam stood with his legs spread apart while he poked his teeth with a wooden toothpick and glanced down at the newspaper on top of my bag. “I know I look more like my mother, but I can’t believe you never saw the resemblance.” Clenching the pick between his teeth, he reached down and snatched up the paper then threw it at me. “Because of you, my father is stuck in prison and my mother is dead.” He shook his head, emotionless.

Acid rose up, burning my esophagus. “Travis Malcolm is your dad?” I whispered shakily. This couldn’t be real. This couldn’t be happening.

“Wait. What the fuck, Sam? You only said she set someone up, and we were to make things right. Travis Malcolm is a sick fuck who should stay exactly where he is.”  Jaxon appeared to be aggravated by the turn of events.

Yeah, because there’s nothing else wrong with this fucked up situation.
If I weren’t terrified and sick to my stomach, I would’ve rolled my eyes.

Sam shoved a finger at Jaxon. “Watch your fucking mouth. He
was
set up. My mother killed herself because of this bitch. My life was completely fucked afterward. I even had to change my last name so the damn media would leave my ass alone.”

Sam was a total asshole, and I didn’t feel sorry for him one bit, but this was further proof of the catastrophe left behind because of Travis. How many lives had he shattered?  

Lifting his hands in the air, Jaxon began to back out of the room. “I’m out, Sam. This isn’t what I signed up for.”

“The fuck you are.” Sam pulled a gun out of his jacket and pointed it at Jaxon.

A fucking gun?

This had to be a nightmare. But why the hell wasn’t I waking up?

Out of nowhere, an idiotic idea came to me. If I could just get Jaxon to look at me, maybe we could still get out of this thing alive. How ironic that the first time I was willing to team up with someone and fight back, it had to be the person who’d been stalking me for months. But if it was my only way out, I’d take it.

I tried to get his attention by clearing my throat, but Jaxon’s eyes never left the barrel until he jetted out of the room and headed toward the rear exit.

I stood frozen in my spot as Sam grunted and sped off after him. I was so in shock, I had to blink a few times to remember where I was and what had just happened. There was no way for a human brain to be able to absorb all this madness and make sense of the chaos in a few split seconds. Slowly, I began to form a plan when I heard a loud crash, then the sound of a few gunshots woke my ass up quick enough.

Deciding I wasn’t going to wait around to see what happened next, I made a break for the front entrance. Just like in those damn movies, I tripped over my bag when I took off running. Scrambling to my feet, I raced out of the room toward the main bar floor, shaking the locked front door.

Son of a bitch, it doesn’t have a turn lock. I need a key.

Thinking quickly, I darted to one of the bar stools resting on top of a table. It took everything I had to pick it up and throw it at one of the windows. The fucking thing bounced off, leaving what looked like shattered glass behind. Running up to the window, I pounded on it with my fist, screaming for help, but it was the middle of the night, and the sidewalk was empty.

Someone had to have heard those gunshots, though. Why wasn’t anyone coming?

Adrenaline coursed through my body as I picked up the stool by its legs once more and swung it like a bat at the window on the other side of the door. I swear the glass just stretched like I was hitting a large rubber band.

This has got to be a nightmare.                                                        

Vicious laughter came from the cutout in the wall that led to the kitchen. “Are you done yet?  We had those windows replaced with unbreakable glass last year. You aren’t getting out that way, Juliana.” Sam was doing something in the kitchen, but I could only see him from the shoulders up.

Down the hall, I saw Jaxon’s body blocking the other exit. If I could just jump over him, I still had a chance. With my sights set on the back door, I took off, only to be stopped by Sam’s large body.

As soon as we collided, he let out a loud groan before I fell backward. Just as my ass hit the concrete, I felt something being poured over my head, dripping into my eyes and mouth. The oily substance smelled and tasted like old chicken and fries.

“April did say she wanted to get rid of this fryer grease. What better way than to have it burn her precious bar down with you and your lover in it. Too bad you shot him first.”

The heavy metal gun landed on my lap, but I shook my legs, backing up until it hit the floor. There was no way I was touching that thing and leaving my fingerprints on it.